Jive Records drops Kelis
Oct 26, 2007, 10:46 PM | by Shirley Halperin


First, former NSyncer JC Chasez decided to part ways with Jive Records, and now, EW has learned, Kelis has been dropped from the label that's home to Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and R. Kelly. The R&B singer's 2003 album, Tasty, yielded the massive hit "Milkshake," and was certified gold, but Kelis' most recent effort, 2006's Kelis Was Here, had less success in the U.S.—despite plenty of guest spots, including a collaboration with her husband, Nas. Kelis was originally signed to Pharrell Williams's Star Tracks, which had a distribution deal in place with Virgin, which was later moved to Arista and, through the SonyBMG merger, she ended up with Jive. "It was a case of being in the ever-shrinking world of the record industry and finding herself on a label she wasn't signed to and without a champion," says Kelis' manager, Jeff Rabhan. "She's a different kind of artist — very image and style-driven. It's either something you get or you don't."

Kelis has been working on an indie dance record with Cee-Lo. A full-on pop effort with Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams) will be shopped around soon. "We're not opposed to another major label deal, but it would have to be non-traditional," adds Rabhan. Kelis is also in talks to host a Project Runway-like show on VH1 and is auditioning for numerous TV and film roles.

http://hollywoodinsider.e...ds-dr.html

just don't get her.

Not surprised at this, there are gonna be alot of cuts at labels at the end of this quarter(feb2008). Kelis has always hit me as an indie artist anyway, because of her "image and style" she needs a label or someone to bankroll pushing that and if it doesnt sell then you cant expect someone to keep bankrolling it. Its like what happend with Anastacia, sony pushed her to death on the first record and the US market was just not having it, though every other country loves her, now though her cds are still released here, sony USA puts almost nothing into pushing them because they gave up on her catching on in the usa.

This is probably the best for her. I can't wait to hear what she comes with next.

Cinnamon234 said:

Even the manager pretty much said it himself. She's all about image. The music was always shit and she never could sing, so as much as I want to bone her I can't say I've got much sympathy. If she's working with Cee-Lo though she can definitely turn it around and maybe release a good single for the first time.

lastdecember said:

i seem to think this is the worst quarter ever

IAintTheOne said:

the funny thing is that people think this is "fourth quarter" but its not, that quarter runs December-February, which is why many artists have pushed their albums deep into October and November, and many to February. Which is why you see the glut of albums that labels really dont care about (saleswise) like Annie Lennox,Chaka etc, just get thrown out there and hope for the best, and why you see tons of best of's coming through in late September, its nothing more than an attempt to gain back "margin", best of's cost nothing to produce,promote and are nothing but profit for a label, and the artists dont mind because its easy extra cash.

The Secret to this madness is all about "reports and trends", everyone moved their records to November 20th because its Thanksgiving week which is the start of the holiday rush, and people are out and about, (typically) but the thing is that in retail there is a boom that week but then a 2-3 week drop and you dont see sales again till 1-2 weeks before xmas. Which is mainly why you dont see many releases in early december, which is why the Mariah album was moved. The reason the Britney album was taken out of the November release race was that they wanted one album to be the wildcard, thats mainly an album that you dont know what it will do, the label spends very little on it because its part of the 3rrd quarter and hopes it sells into the fourth quarter.

This is my favorite Kelis vocal performance.
http://www.youtube.com/wa...RHz_aGzEGI

lastdecember said:

I know the whole schpeel, i used to work for labels so trust me i know the whole mess

if they drop kelis, they should drop britney, SHE can't sing!

dragondayz said:

Sounds like she's in her room practising her Toni Braxton impression.

She's a producer driven artist and Jive already have a better one signed. As Pharrell said, he would of been better giving Milkshake to Miss Spears.

alphastreet said:

i thought her first album was alright..I liked a few cutz..

JackieBlue said:

But Britney is "America's Princess"

and she's white, making a profit out of stealing janet jackson's moves earlier in her career

alphastreet said:

Yep and as a result of her increased marketability she also gets given/can afford the best material. The same is true of Justin Timberlake.

Jive are the masters of that, Backstreet Boys and N'Sync covered the white boys doing R&B pop angle. If R. Kelly wasn't so damned good at what he does he'd be in trouble. He has the King of R&B game locked down.

Are we serious, the reason TEEN POP sold was because it was "safe" the same reason that DISNEY is the only thing that sells still to this day. Parents were buying it for their kids because it was safe music. I dont agree that Backstreet and Nsync sold because of Boyz II men, i think what Boyz II men caused were artists like NEXT and shit like that, they brought back the RB group but that wore out real quick, the same way Pearl Jam brought out all those grunge copycats. The blame lies with producers like Pharrell and Timbaland because they bridged this gap and made RB into POP by simplifing it and making it disposable, catchy, but disposable. As far as peoples talents and who they get their influence from, if we checked that shit at the door, than almost no one would be signed, everyone is biting off someone.

she should just make dance / urban cuts in the UK for now

Till the Wheels Fall Off
Lil Star
Marathon
Milkshake

I like those cuts. I'm not a big fan (obviously ) but I apprecite her smoky voice, she's interesting at times. I hope she bounces back/continues to get her stuff out there

I don't get it. If an album flops, shouldn't the label dump the A&R executives/producers?

kelis & guy chambers?

CalhounSq said:

did u like "Living Proof" and "Circus"?

"Millionaire" featuring Andre 3000



http://youtube.com/watch?v=z5kHF4IKgWU

paisleypark4 said:

I've never bought an album, only individual tracks based on ITunes snips. I'll have to listen to those. But I think I went through all her stuff & only bought the 4 that sounded interesting to me

Good luck. Maybe third time is a charm (although, wasn't she on a different label for "Tasty"? Like Arista/Startek....some shit).

CalhounSq said:

Just listened. "Circus" sounds like some bullshit "Living Proof" may be okay but the hook isn't grabbing me, I wish they would let some of the verse play.

Just based on this thread she's sold 4 more songs Downloading:

Sebastian Remix of "Bossy" (I can work out to this)
Goodbyes (might be cool, like the music)
Help Me (never heard this)
Suga Honey Iced Tea (I'm bored)

Cinnie said: